Arrangement for shed formation

ABSTRACT

A shed formation mechanism arrangement comprising a plurality of healds, an impulse counter controlled by the timing of the weft carrier, said counter continuously produces output impulses, a preset selector for determining the repeat of a weaving pattern, a reversing switch means for feeding said impulses, contact means, a pair of knives and a shaft for each of the said healds, a piston and cylinder coupling means for each of said knives, said contact means upon receiving the impulses generages a reciprocating movement to said coupling means to effect a mechanical coupling between one of said knives and said shaft, a guide and connecting means for coupling said shaft to its corresponding heald, a piston and cylinder drive means for each of said knives, and said drive means reciprocates said knives to move the healds to their shed positions.

States Kuster et a1.

[ 1 Feb. 26, 1974 1 ARRANGEMENT FOR SHED FORMATION [22] Filed: Jan. 4., 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 215,340

[52] 11.8. C1. 139/55, 139/317 [51] llnt. Cl. D03! 115/110 [58] Field of Search 139/55, 57, 317, 319; 66/154 A, 154

[56] References Cited UNlTED STATES PATENTS 3,191,633 6/1965 Piot 139/55 X 2,425,676 8/1947 Hindle 139/55 2,687,750 8/1954 Weingartner.... 139/55 2,790,465 4/1957 Battner 139/55 3,139,909 7/1964 Parker et al. 1.39/55 3,586,061 6/1971 Lauritsen 139/55 3,664,383 5/1972 Minchey et a1. 139/55 3,103,953 9/1963 Lauritsen 139/55 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 3/1955 ltaly 139/55 1,296,090 5/1962 France 139/55 1,440,871 4/1966 France 371,162 10/1963 Switzerland...

925,279 3/1955 Germany 139/55 Primary Examiner-James Kee Chi Attorney, Agent, or FirmFred Philpitt 57 ABSTRACT A shed formation mechanism arrangement comprising aplurality of healds, an impulse counter controlled by the timing of the weft carrier, said counter continuously produces output impulses, a preset selector for determining the repeat of a weaving pattern, a reversing switch means for feeding said impulses, contact means, a pair of knives and a shaft for each of the said healds, a piston and cylinder coupling means for each of said knives, said contact means upon receiving the impulses generages a reciprocating movement to said coupling means to effect a mechanical coupling between one of said knives and said shaft, a guide and connecting means for coupling said shaft to its corresponding heald, a piston and cylinder drive means for each of said knives, and said drive means reciprocates said knives to move the healds to their shed positions.

7 Claims, 11 Drawing Figures PMENTED 35261974 3,794,082

SHET 2 or 9 Ill WI 1 I PATENTEDFEBZB'W 3,794,082

SHEET 7 BF 9 FIGS PATENTEU FEBZS m4 SHEET 8 OF 9 ARRANGEMENT FUR SHED FORMATION This invention relates to an arrangement for shed formation with separately disposed associated programming, which releases a rigid connection between the shed formation arrangement and the heald frames. The difference between known shed formation arrangements and this present invention is that the latter is not mechanically guided by a crankshaft or other shafts in direct connection with the crankshaft, and that the weft-thread carrier is the timing device for the movements of the arrangement. The arrangement can be operated independently of the remaining loom devices required for producing a fabric, in such a way, that the main movement of the arrangement (heald knives) is effected by a separate reciprocating drive element, for example an electromotor, cylinder or magnet.

The arrangement comprises two knives, one for the upper shed and one for the lower shed, with one or several drive elements such arranged that the heald knives in the end position can assume an angular position in relation to the starting position of the heald knife, that this angle is adjustable and thus determines the angle of the shed. The arrangement can be built directly in or at the side of the loom.

Dobbies are known, at which two guide pins located directly in front of each other and operated by electromagnets are coupled with the heald frame or a corresponding guide member (heald foot) (German patent specification 925,279).

At said known arrangement the control impulses to said magnets are produced by a pattern card, which is driven mechanically guided by the crankshaft. The movements of the heald also are mechanically guided by the crankshaft, which implies that one has to operate the entire loom to form a shed. The known arrangement involves the disadvantage that the healds are mechanically guided in relation to the loom and thereby assume a predetermined position. The control of electromagnets from pattern cards requires one separate card for each binding of the weave. The electric switches, which are disconnected from pattern cards, are subjected to a high switching frequency, which brings about mechanical wear and finally results in operation breakdown.

It further is known that a dobby produces electric impulses from pattern cards to solenoid valves (German document laid open No. 1,801,502). Each solenoid valve connects a cylinder, which lifts a lever and thereby releases a mechanic movement via tooth segments to a heald jack, which is mechanically guided with the heald frame.

The aforesaid arrangement shows the disadvantage that the control members are not positively connected with the healds, and that operation breakdown easily can occur. Also in this case, as mentioned before, there is the disadvantage of mechanical guidance of the drive arm and pattern card by the crankshaft or other shafts connected to the crankshaft, which obstructs work with only the shed formation mechanism as well as the electric impulse transmission through pattern cards.

The present invention eliminates the aforesaid disadvantages. Its precise function is described in greater detail below (only one embodiment with the arrangement at the side of the loom is described), by help ofthe associated drawings, in which FIG. 1 shows a lateral view of the arrangement,

FIG. 2 shows a front .view of the arrangement, with several drive elements for the knife movement,

FIG. 3 shows the section AA in FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 shows the section C-C in FIG. 2,

FIG. 5 shows the section BB in FIG. 2,

FIG. 6 shows the knives with alternative examples of drive elements,

FIG. 7 shows a pneumatic coupling diagram for knife movement,

FIG. 8 shows a pneumatic coupling diagram of the binding preselector,

FIG. 9 shows an electric wiring diagram of the binding preselector,

FIG. 10 shows binding repeat and section through fabric,

FIG. llll shows in a schematic way how the arrangement described can be attached to a loom and the coupling together of the heald with the heald frame.

For facilitating the understanding of the mode of operation of the novel arrangement and its timing device, the course of steps is described as follows:

1. Starting position: shed closed and thread carrier in shuttle box.

2. Impulse from manual switch to the knives, which assume the end position and open the shed.

3. Impulse from the knives to thread carrier when the shed has been opened.

4. Thread carrier moves the thread over to the other side and stops in shuttle box.

5. Impulse from thread carrier to the knives, which close the shed.

In FIGS. 1-5 an embodiment of a shed formation arrangement is shown. Two end walls 18 and 24 are held together by means of bolts 2 and washers 3 by a crossbeam l and two flat irons 27. Thereby a firm stand is formed, in which the knives 9 and 10 move and also are guided laterally. Said knives 9, 10 are started to move by the cylinders 4, I3, 44 and 45, and are coupled together with the knives by a piston-rod coupling 8 and a shaft 37. Said shaft is supported in a bushing 38 and locked in axial direction by two locking rings 39, see FIG. 5. Guide rails 34 for the shaft 28 are fixed to the upper and lower edges of the knifes 9 and M) by screws 33 (see FIG. 3). In the rear end the cylinders 13, 44 and 45 are supported in a bracket 16 through the shaft 14, which is secured by screws in the end wall 118 and, respectively, 24. The cylinder 4 is supported in the crossbeam 1. In the knives 9, 10 there are also built-in guide rollers 42, which are given guidance in the left-hand end wall 18 and comprise a shaft 43, which is rigidly connected with the knives 9 and, respectively, 10. On said shaft there are mounted two roller bearings 42, which are guided in a groove formed between the end wall 113 and two guide bars 6 secured by bolts 5 in the end wall 13. The roller bearings are locked laterally by a washer 41 and a locking ring 40, see FIG. 4.

For being able to couple the healds 23 with the knives, a cylinder 36 with a piston-rod 4% is applied. The cylinder is safely screwn into a cylinder hold 35, which in its turn is safely screwn into the respective knife. The hole directly in front of the cylinder hold 35 is provided with a bushing 29 to reduce the friction on the piston-rod 48. When the knives are moving to the end position, the piston-rod 48 constitutes the connection between heald and knife, if the cylinder 36 is actuated. When the knives are returning to their starting position, the movement is transferred by the shoulders 71 riveted in the heald 28. The shoulders thereby unload the piston-rod 48 from the healds and thereby render possible a more rapid re-connection and, besides, prevent unnecessary wear.

The blocking of healds (when not all healds are utilized) is effected by a screw 31, which is inserted through a holder 32 straight through the healds 28 and thereafter is safely screwn into the rear wall of the holder. Said holder is secured in the end walls 18 and 24 by the screws 30.

The cylinders 36, one for each knife and heald, are connected by a flexible plastic hose to electric valves receiving their impulses from an electro-pneumatic binding preselector, which determines the programming and is described lateron by help of FIGS. 8 and 9.

In FIG. 6 an example of knives with one drive element is shown. The function is the same as if several drive elements are used, buthere the cylinders 52 are fastened, instead, in the centre of the knives 50 and 51 by a piston-rod coupling 53.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a pneumatic coupling of knife movement. The cylinders 4, 13, 44 and 45 are supplied with compressed air through the valves 66 and By FIGS. 8, 9 and 10 an embodiment of a separate binding preselector is illustrated, which is set for cloth binding with two healds.

A known impulse counter, electric sequence-action relay, electronic counting mechanism 60 a.s.o. are controlled by the timing of the weft-thread carrier. The impulse counter thereby produces continuous impulses until a pre-set electric selector 68 stops this continuous production and simultaneously effects a repeat of the set contact sequence. The number of impulses to be counted until the electric selector determines repeat of the contact sequence corresponds to the number of weft-threads in the desired fabric binding repeat 69, for example cloth binding and its cross-section with pos. 70. In addition there is provided a forward and rearward switch 61 rendering possible a continuous counting (plus or minus) and in this way to feed impulses to contact bars 62 and 63, the number of which corresponds to the number of healds, which contact bars are so designed that two output impulses isolated from each other are obtained via amplifyer 64 and contact arrangement 65 (one impulse each for upper and lower sheds) deciding which of the valve means 54, 55, 56, 57 is to effect the supply of compressed air from the feed lines 58 to the respective cylinder 36. As to the establishment of the rigid connection between the shed formation arrangement and the heald frames, see the description and FIG. 3.

In FIG. 11 a loom stand is shown which comprises a side stand 26 and a superstructure 25. in said superstructure the upper guide rollers 17 are mounted which are supported in the shaft 7 in the superstructure. The lower guide rollers 11 are supported in the shaft 12 and mounted in brackets 15 directly in the floor. The shed formation arrangement in this example is located at the side of the loom, and the end walls 18 and 24 are fastened directly in the side stand 26 of the loom. The healds 28 are at both ends connected together with a chain 46, which is guided by a guide roller 22 supported in the shaft 21 and mounted in the end walls 18 and 24. The upper chain continues via the guide roller 17 to the heald frame 23. The lower chain runs via the guide roller 11 and is then coupled to the lower side of the heald frame 23. When the heald 28 according to the description above is mechanically coupled with the upper knife 9, the heald frame 23 moves from its central position to the lower end position 20 shown by a dashed line. If mechanical coupling with the lower knife 10 takes place, the heald frame 23 moves from its central position to the upper end position 19, which also is shown by dashed lines.

What we claim is:

1. A shed formation mechanism arrangement comprising a plurality of healds, an impulse counter controlled by the timing of the weft carrier, said counter continuously produces output impulses, a pre-set selector for determining the repeat of a weaving pattern, a reversing switch means for feeding said impulses, contact means, a pair of knives and a shaft for each of the said healds, a piston and cylinder coupling means for each of said knives, said contact means upon receiving the impulses generates a reciprocating movement to said coupling means to effect a mechanical coupling between one of said knives and said shaft, a guide and connecting means for coupling said shaft to its corresponding heald, a piston and cylinder drive means for each of said knives, and said drive means reciprocates said knives to move the healds to their shed positions.

2. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that the two knives in the starting position (closed shed and knives lying together) lie in parallel.

3. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim I characterized in that the two knives in the end position (open shed and knives lying apart) lie either in parallel or in an adjustable angular position in relation to the starting position of the knives and thus determine the opening angle of the shed and whether the shed shall be clean or broken.

4. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that the knives are driven by separate reciprocating drive sources, which may have the same or different strokes.

5. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that the knives can be driven by at least one drive component.

6. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that at least two healds can be guided.

7. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that the shed forming apparatus can be built in or at the side of the loom.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3,794,082 Dated February 26, 1974 1 ?'-IEINZ KUSTER and BJORN BRORSSON It is certified that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

On the first page of the patent after the application number insert Foreign Application Priority Data January 12, 1971 Sweden ..279/71--- Signed and sealed this 30th dayof July 1971+.

(SEAL) Attest:

MCCOY M. GIBSON, JR. c. MARSHALL DANN Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents USCOMM-DC 60376-P69 fi U.5. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: I969 0-366-334 FORM F'O-IOSO (10-69) 

1. A shed formation mechanism arrangement comprising a plurality of healds, an impulse counter controlled by the timing of the weft carrier, said counter continuously produces output impulses, a pre-set selector for determining the repeat of a weaving pattern, a reversing switch means for feeding said impulses, contact means, a pair of knives and a shaft for each of the said healds, a piston and cylinder coupling means for each of said knives, said contact means upon receiving the impulses generates a reciprocating movement to said coupling means to effect a mechanical coupling between one of said knives and said shaft, a guide and connecting means for coupling said shaft to its corresponding heald, a piston and cylinder drive means for each of said knives, and said drive means reciprocates said knives to move the healds to their shed positions.
 2. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that the two knives in the starting position (closed shed and knives lying together) lie in parallel.
 3. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that the two knives in the end position (open shed and knives lying apart) lie either in parallel or in an adjustable angular position in relation to the starting position of the knives and thus determine the opening angle of the shed and whether the shed shall be clean or broken.
 4. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that the knives are driven by separate reciprocating drive sources, which may have the same or different strokes.
 5. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that the knives can be driven by at least one drive component.
 6. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that at least two healds can be guided.
 7. An arrangement for shed formation according to claim 1 characterized in that the shed forming apparatus can be built in or at the side of the loom. 